Thursday morning we spent exploring Newport, Oregon. They have a beautiful town on the bay with lots of cute shops, restaurants, and seafood markets.
These sea lions were sleeping right beside the dock. We heard them barking the night before but couldn't see them...Thursday morning, there they were!
Kellan and daddy on the dock
Mommy and Kellan on the docks...it was a foggy morning. There is a really pretty bridge but its hard to see.
A better picture of the bridge
There are two lighthouses in Newport. This one is Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and is located near the port and bay.
This one is Yaquina Head Lighthouse and it is located on the ocean. We actually saw a grey whale come up and blow water several times while visiting this lighthouse. It was pretty exciting, especially since I've never seen a whale in the wild before. Of course my camera battery died right when we got to this lighthouse. We had to take this picture with Michael's phone. We plugged it in at the visitor's center :)
A mural on one of the buildings along the bay.
Lots of crab pots ready to use...
We left Newport and kept driving south down the coast. We stopped along the way to check out more lighthouses, other attractions, and viewpoints.
Heceta Head Lighthouse was one huge DISAPPOINTMENT! Every time I googled Oregon lighthouses this one was supposedly the most photographed and beautiful lighthouse. This is what we saw when we got to the beach that it overlooks from up on a cliff. It was covered in a huge black tent while its being renovated! *sigh* How sad...oh well, I guess everything can't always go perfectly as planned. It was a short hike to get up to it but with it looking like that, we just decided to skip the hike.
Our next stop was the Sea Lion Caves. We took an elevator down to the cave but this time of year there are no sea lions inside. (Michael said he considered telling one of the employees that his wife was already pretty upset about the most picturesque lighthouse in Oregon being covered up so they might want to start to do something to get a sea lion to go in that cave.) They stay in the caves only during the winter months or severe weather. Although I've seen some reviews from other travelers that were there in early summer and the sea lions were in. So I'm really not sure if there is an exact time frame for how they travel. This is their actual habitat in the wild so the owners of the caves have no control of the sea lions comings and goings.
This is the opening of the cave from up above.
Next we stopped at Mo's for lunch. There were Mo's all over the Oregon coast and they specialize in chowder. We figured we had to stop and eat at one since we had passed so many.
I got the fish tacos and Michael got some kind of seafood platter (I think...I'm really not sure what he ordered). The chowder was good...my fish tacos were OK. It was a decent place just not anywhere I would go out of my way to eat again.
Kellan fell asleep in the car after lunch. This is his whale that we bought him after our whale sighting :)
Next we headed to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. These are no ordinary dunes. They stretch for 40 miles and are as high as 50 feet in some places. It was quite. a. hike. to get up to the top. I'm really glad I wasn't the one with Kellan on my back. The pictures really do not show how steep and high this part was.
Mommy trying to cuddle with Kellan in the sand...
Kellan loved playing (and eating) the sand. I found sand in all of the folds and crevices of his clothes and I dumped out a pile from my own shoes.
Our last sightseeing adventure for Day 2 was the Umpqua River Lighthouse. It was right at the mouth of the Umpqua River where it flows into the ocean. Actually that's not true...we raced to get to the Cape Arago Lighthouse that was further down the coast. We got there before the sun set but it had actually been closed down and you couldn't go up to it. It sits on an island with sheer cliffs and we could see it in the distance but you couldn't really make it out that well in a picture. Apparently it has a bridge to it that has been washed out in the past.
We stopped for the night in Coos Bay and ate at a fabulous restaurant called the Coach House. It was kind of away from the downtown and off the beaten path but it had good reviews online so we decided to try it. I'm so glad we did. They had an inside bar area but they have turned a greenhouse into an outdoor restaurant full of flowers and hanging baskets. We ate in the greenhouse and not only was the restaurant itself unique but they had fantastic food. If you are ever in Coos Bay, Oregon we highly recommend it!
Our waitress was SO NICE and even brought Kellan his own little "The Coach House" apron to keep. He was over picture time by this point and just wanted to eat everything in sight.
I don't even remember what Michael had...prawns and something, twice baked potato, and vegetables
I definitely remember what I had! Cilantro chicken with Monterrey jack cheese, twice baked potato, and mixed vegetables.
This was the end of a looooong but full Day 2. I can't believe all of this was just Day 2...we were really moving! Come back tomorrow to find out what we did after we left the coast and headed inland!
Wednesday afternoon we left Cannon Beach and headed south along the coast. We didn't really know where we were staying because we didn't know how far we would be able to drive by the end of the day. Our only plans were to follow the coast and stop whenever something looked interesting. There were many viewpoints along the way overlooking the gorgeous Pacific Ocean. We took many, many pictures but I just chose a few to include in this post. After a while it was just more and more pictures of the same rocky coast. Its so hard not to take pictures while you are there because it is just so beautiful and SO different from our own Virginia and North Carolina coast.
Cape Foulweather...sighted and named by Captain James Cook in 1778 during his 3rd trip around the world...it was named after the bad weather he had while sailing in the area
Depoe Bay...world's smallest harbor :) It was a really pretty bridge.
Lots of grey whales are often spotted off the northern coast of Oregon so of course we had to take Kellan's picture with this whale fountain in Depoe Bay
Our last destination for our first day! We stopped in Newport, Oregon to eat dinner and find a hotel.
We stayed in the super nice Elizabeth Inn. All of the rooms were ocean front and had fireplaces.
View from our room
Kellan loved the fireplace...thankfully it didn't get hot on the outside
We had dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods, a fish market and restaurant. There was a long wait but it had great reviews so we decided to stay.
Kellan "enjoying" his baby food pouch...I'll have to do a post later about our experience with store bought baby food...for now I will just say Kellan and I both are so glad to be back to our homemade food
Lots of fresh seafood available to buy to take home and cook...
Michael and I both got the bacon wrapped tuna steak so I only took a picture of one of them...it was delicious!
And of course we had to try not one, but both of their specialty ice creams. The chocolate was some kind of Rocky Road and the other was some kind of pistachio that I can't remember exactly. They were both wonderful.
Next, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for bed...there were many verses sung of "There's A Naked Baby in My Bed"
This hotel was wonderful! Warm cookies served at night! Chocolate chip and Oatmeal raisin...and yes I ate a chocolate chip even after I had just had ice cream.
Bath time in the sink!
Mirror fun before bed!
Luckily Kellan slept much better this night, although he still woke up early. I should also tell you that he was AMAZING in the car. He took naps in his car seat in between stops and babbled and talked to us the rest of the way. He handled this road trip way better than I ever imagined he would. More tomorrow about the rest of our time in Newport and other places we visited on the coast during Day 2!
We got into Portland on Tuesday night pretty late, especially for us on east coast time, so we got a quick hotel room for the night. Kellan did NOT sleep well this first night. He was not happy about having to sleep in his Pack N' Play and he kept waking up crying. Then he finally woke up around 5:30 a.m. and would not hear of going back to sleep. I guess it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were all bathed, dressed, the rental car repacked, breakfast eaten, and on the road before 8:00 a.m. headed to the coast.
Our first destination was Cannon Beach, which is known for the famous Haystack Rock. If you look closely in the pictures you can see how massive these rocks are by how tiny the people are at the base of the rocks. We got there at a perfect time because the tide was out so we could walk close up to them.
We borrowed my sister's back pack carrier and it was extremely useful! If it wasn't for this thing it would have been a lot more difficult to lug this 25 pound baby around. Thankfully he loved being in it and would just burst into fits of giggles every time Michael started to walk.
The Oregon coast was CHILLY. We knew it was going to be but it was still a shock when we got there. OK it was only a shock for me...Michael didn't think it was that cold. I love weather with a chill to the air but I definitely have to dress for it. To me, temperatures in the 50's are cold. We brought this little sweater hoodie for Kellan that was a hand-me-down from my nephew Owen. Kellan looked so adorable in it and he did a great job keeping his hood on. He never minded the cold either, I guess he takes after his dad.
A nice couple from Southern California took our picture :)
When we drove into Cannon Beach we went straight to the rocks so later we went back to the downtown area for lunch and a little shopping. This is the most adorable little town and I could not get over all of the beautiful flowers and plants the restaurants and shops keep around the outside of their buildings. I saw some of the most beautiful hydrangea bushes that I had ever seen with the most unique colors. I did not do a good job of capturing these gorgeous flowers when I look back at my pictures. It was so hard to get good pictures with all of the cars parked on the street. The photos we took do not do the town justice...it was so cute and obvious that the people that live and work there take an enormous amount of pride in the appearance of their town.
We had lunch at Morris' Fireside Restaurant.
Kellan doing his usual entertainment with a straw...
Michael and I shared a bowl of oyster stew
I got an avocado and shrimp sandwich with a fruit and vegetable salad
And Michael got the same salad with the French dip...and those are Kellan's sweet potato crackers peeking in at the top left corner...thank goodness for those things...they kept his mouth full for at least a little while
After lunch and window shopping we headed to Ecola State Park. We drove up a mountain for several miles through a very lush forest to get to this viewpoint of the ocean.
The trees were HUGE and some of them were growing this really fuzzy moss. There were also really, really big ferns that covered the forest floor.
After we left Ecola we headed south down the Oregon coast to see what we could see :) I'll post all about the rest of Day 1 tomorrow...we just saw too much and took too many pictures to squeeze it all into one post! I told you I'm going to be blogging about this trip until Christmas!
